by: the Common Constitutionalist

Gone are the days when colleges were the bastions of critical thought and speech – when professors and students alike could be purposely provocative. Now students must sit down, shut up and accept being propagandized. You may not speak out, or even joke about things like gender, religion or race. Somewhere, somehow, someone will be offended, and being offended can no longer be tolerated on a college campus. I believe that is the 57th Amendment – the right not to be offended. I think it comes just after the right to a free education.

Students, faculty and administrators appear to no longer have any capacity for patience, understanding or forgiveness. Today, even something completely harmless can be mistaken by one of the faux-oppressed to be offensive.

And so it was on the once serene campus of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. February 18, 2016 – an otherwise quiet winter’s day exploded with cries of racism. What – you mean you haven’t heard? Was there a KKK rally or maybe a whites-only polo match?

No – this was far worse. Two white female students boorishly posted a picture of themselves in blackface to “the campuswide Snapchat account. Within hours the university’s chancellor, Beverley Kopper, emailed the campus community to denounce the post as ‘racist.” And as well she should have. Who do these girls think they are? Are they white supremacist plants placed on campus to start a race riot? read more

EVEN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES HAD ‘GUN LAWS’

Recently, Texas has been at the forefront of relaxing restrictions on guns. It’s joining the ranks of “open-carry” states and more controversially, will soon (in August) be one of only eight states that allow concealed carry weapons on public college campuses. However, seven states have written into their laws exceptions limiting certain areas on campus from their carry laws. Only Utah has a statute specifically naming public colleges and universities as public entities that do not have the authority to ban concealed carry, and thus, all 10 public institutions in Utah allow concealed weapons on their property.

Of course, that’s down south and out west where gun-totin’ is much more common. read more

Politically Correct Germany, a country synonymous with beer and sausages, is now in the process of removing all pork products from menus throughout the country to be more sensitive to their hundreds of thousands of new Muslims “guests.” Of course there will be nationalist backlash from this!

In segment two I discuss what certainly appears to be a growing alliance between Hamas and ISIS. They’ve apparently found a common enemy and as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy… I find this odd in that Hamas is financed by Iran and Russia, who are supposed to at war with ISIS in Syria. Strange days indeed.

I also throw in a few minor topics about politics and the homeless. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Sheeesh! This is second time this week I’ve written about Rush Limbaugh. It does have to do with politics, but thankfully it doesn’t concern the presidential election or the never-ending primary season. I know it’s of vital importance, but frankly the never ending daily doses of it are getting a bit old.

Some of you may remember that Rush Limbaugh did a short stint as a commentator on the sports network ESPN. If you don’t, that’s okay. It was after all 13 years ago. In 2000 Limbaugh was passed over for a seat on the ABC Monday Night Football crew. They instead went with Dennis Miller. That worked out well – NOT.

Three years later he was offered a position on ESPN’s flagship broadcast, “NFL Sunday Night Countdown,” joining Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Steve Young and Michael Irvin. I recall Rush telling his radio audience that they told him he could speak about anything – that there would be virtually no filter. And he believed them – silly guy. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Last week Oregon Governor Kate Brown gleefully signed into law a progressive statewide minimum wage increase. It will be phased in over the next six years, starting this July. “I’m proud to sign into law my top priority of the 2016 Legislative session — raising the minimum wage,” Brown said in a statement. She said the new law “is a path forward – so working families can catch up, and businesses have time to plan for the increase.” Plan to close down or lay off half their staff maybe.

The current Oregon minimum wage is $9.25/hour. I say progressive because the area of the state will determine the base “living wage.” If one works in rural Oregon the wage will increase to $12.50/hr. – small cities and towns, $13.50 and large cities like Portland, the hourly minimum wage will top out at $14.75.

But as is being reported, some are still not satisfied. And why would they be? We should know by now that the far left can and will never be placated. No matter how much wealth government redistributes, it will never be enough.

A left wing advocacy group, “Oregonians for 15,” is unsatisfied with both the amount and phase-in time. They want $15/hr. in three years. They are threatening a State ballot initiative this November if they don’t get what they want. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Last week British singer/songwriter Sam Smith won an Oscar for the theme song of the latest James Bond film Spectre. From what I understand of the ratings, not many (including me) saw it, so let me recap his acceptance speech, which I found on YouTube.

He said he read an article written by some other British guy that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar. Smith (no relation – I hope) said whether this was true or not, he’d still like to dedicate his award to the LGBT community all around the world. He continued by saying: “I stand here as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.”

After the merriment subsided, people took to Twitter and such to correct Smith that he wasn’t the first. Of course he said he may not be, but that didn’t matter to the low information crowd who watch these displays of self-aggrandizement.

Smith responded to the criticism by saying: “Second openly gay man to win an Oscar or third or fourth or 100th, it wasn’t my point. My point was to shine some light on the LGBT community who I love so dearly.” read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Hollywood does a lot these days to drive America’s liberal social narrative. They are normally at the forefront of every wacky feel-good leftist cause. Leonardo DiCaprio took the little time allotted for his first Oscar acceptance speech to preach his global warming nonsense.

DiCaprio said: “Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow.” He added: “Climate change is real, it is happening right now.”

Well Leo, you neglected to add that most of the movie was filmed in Canada during the winter when there was plenty of snow. But production delays pushed some of the shooting into July. That would be the middle of the summer, when historically there is NO SNOW! So I agree – climate change is real. It really changes from winter to summer every year.

Still, no one makes a fuss over his inane comments. No one argues that he should not be able to make such statements, regardless of their intelligence.

The same goes for another Hollywood intellectual lightweight – Eva Longoria, in her support for the Latino community. She insisted that everyone at the Oscars make a statement of solidarity by wearing a brown ribbon in support of Latinos. Her cause is to underscore the lack of Latinos working in films and TV. read more

In this episode I discuss the silly atheist Michael Newdow and his latest anti-religion lawsuit attempting to rid America of the scourge of “In God We Trust.” He claims that this “Motto” and others are promoting Monotheism in our nation and he won’t stand for it.

In the second segment I discuss a recent article on the Guardian website that insists Obama is the cause of the rise of Donald Trump – that the American public is so angry at Obama and government they are now flocking to Trump, who he calls the anti-Obama. I also uncover a silver lining to a Trump presidency, as liberals promise to leave America should he be elected. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Well, that didn’t take very long, did it. Just days after Justice Scalia’s untimely death and an even shorter period of time since Republican leadership declared its intention not to consent to an Obama nominee; moderates within the Republican Party are going wobbly. I guess that is not entirely accurate. The ones going wobbly were already.

The Huffington Post is happily reporting that, “Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), one of the most at-risk GOP incumbents this cycle, has broken with his party and said he’s open to considering a Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Barack Obama.” Of course they didn’t come out and say they were happy – I am just pointing out what should be obvious.

Kirk wrote in an op-ed in the Chicago Sun Times that the president has every right to nominate a replacement for the vacated seat. Fair enough. He added that, “I also recognize my duty as a senator to either vote in support or opposition to that nominee following a fair and thorough hearing along with a complete and transparent release of all requested information.” Kirk said that the Senate’s role in the process is as important as the President’s, which is also correct.

And he’s not alone in breaking ranks with the supposed hard-line stance of Republican leadership. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Dan Coats of Indiana and of course Susan Collins of Maine (really a democrat) and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all came out to parrot Kirk’s stance. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

Apparently American Muslims are not American. Oh, they may think they are, but this is evidently not the case. Normal Americans go to work every day and send their normal American kids off to school. They don’t consider themselves particularly special. They don’t ask others for a carve out or to be celebrated as being different. They are just Americans.

I’m sure many American Muslims think this way. I’m sure they don’t consider themselves special. They want to be treated like everyone else. They say they don’t wish to be treated differently than any other American. But is this really true?

Evidently not, at least far as the school administrators at the New York World School of Inquiry,
in Rochester NY are concerned. A request from a single Muslim student prompted Principal Sheela Webster to host a “World Hijab Day event the week of February 1 which ‘encouraged girls to wear the Muslim religious head covering.’”

And what made “World Hijab Day” so much more special – not a single parent was notified ahead of the event. They found out about it on the news, which being New York, probably breathlessly reported on it, extolling the schools diversity and inclusion. read more